After an almost 30 year absence from my beloved horses I’m going to return, as best I can, to the horse-centered life I once enjoyed. I’m now 60 years old and have fibromyalgia among other things. Because of my current circumstances I’ve become quite out of shape though I, luckily, haven’t gained any significant weight. My return is going to involve buying an acreage back in my home state of Iowa (I currently live in southern AZ), moving house, arranging whatever improvements my new property requires such as having fencing put in, stalls built, etc. I don’t currently own any horses, boarding here is ridiculously expensive, so I’ll be purchasing new-to-me stock. Originally I made my living raising, training, and showing quarter horses and paints. My plan now is to get back into raising babies and training them for my own pleasure and eventual sale. I’m retired so this will be very small scale, maybe a couple of good broodmares and a riding horse to help me get my “seat” back until the first ‘crop’ of babies is old enough to start riding. My spouse is quite a bit older than I and is definitely not a horse person or a DIYer but he is incredibly strong and energetic for anyone at any age. He’s also willing to take care of the house work except for the cooking which is fine since I’ve had food poisoning and it’s not fun. He’s also okay with helping out with tasks requiring brute strength like helping set up stalls, pens, etc., though I plan on hiring knowledgeable locals also. My dilemma is that 1) I want to be doing it all yesterday given my age and the time I’ve lost from something I’ve loved so much 2) not knowing how much time it’s going to take to recover even part of my original riding ability (I don’t expect to recover all of it) and 3) just organizing such a huge change given my current physical condition. I guess what I need from you all is a lot of support and suggestions. Thanks for listening.
Never too late to do what you dream of doing!
I would say, why not shop around for a place that has what you will need already, maybe with a little tweaking here or there only?
Talking about speed getting back to horses, that would make more sense than starting a place from scratch?
Whatever way you go, be sure your plans are very, very flexible.
Things can change in a hurry, your health, the horse market you thought you wanted to be involved in, now finding it has changed and other may make more sense, your own riding, etc.
The old, I knew I had all the answers and someone changed the questions!
Go seize the moment, now is the time.
Don’t forget to enjoy the trip and have all the fun you can have along the way.
Please make sure you are prepared for living in a climate with winter again. I am the same age as you, and am also riding the autoimmune runaway train, and I recently moved from Colorado to South Carolina because I can’t deal with winter any more. I’d pretty much become a prisoner anytime it snowed. I still have one horse (retired like me) and I bike a lot to stay mobile, so being stuck inside was a very bad thing for me.
You might want to try dipping your toe in the water a bit first to make sure you still can do what you used to do, even on a smaller scale. When we had our horses at home in Colorado, I thought, “Sure, I can always do the feeding. How hard is it?” Well, I couldn’t. I couldn’t walk across deep mud or snow. Seems like it was always one or the other where I lived.
I’m not saying to give up your dreams. I’m just suggesting you make sure your body will still do what it used to do before you are committed.
Best of luck to you!
Rebecca
For me, ironically, after living here for 17 years I can no longer handle the heat, the dry air, and the constant sun. Right this minute I’m a prisoner in my house. I’m been a prisoner in my house about 7-8 months of the year because of the dry air and the intense sun. My eyes can’t handle it. It’s not all that long since I ran 10K 6 days a week and did pilates and yoga daily, I’m really just unconditioned. Running on concrete did my feet in but all the rest of my joints are fine. After a couple of years of immobility the fibro or whatever it was seems to have gotten to a manageable point but it’s apparent that I am going to have to live elsewhere because of my eyes. The heat (it’s 107 right now with 9% humidity) kills me. As I always tell folks, “You can always put more clothes on but there’s only so much you can take off without getting arrested.”
Fibro isn’t an autoimmune problem, btw. It’s a neurological/musculoskeletal problem. It’s not progressive either. For example my blood labs are excellent - I’m the picture of a healthy 30 yr. old according to the lab. My biggest worries are regaining my riding skills and my general strength/endurance.
My rheumatologist says fibro is autoimmune. But the problem with fibro is that no one really knows what it is. Mine is supposedly secondary to, and caused by, rheumatoid arthritis. I dispute that I even have it, as everything I have going on is attributable to RA, and my experience is very different from my friends who have fibro. Denial has always worked for me as a strategy for avoiding additional diagnoses.
Rebecca
OP, have you had any recent riding lessons or have you been handling horses recently?
If not you really should get back in the saddle with an instructor and you should take some ground work clinics.
It doesn’t matter how good you were 30 years ago. Speaking as a returning rider myself, expect to have to relearn everything saddle and handling.
You’ll also want to get up to speed on changes and research in nutrition, hoof care, and genetics.
Sounds like a lot of fun but start small, be realistic, and don’t overload yourself too soon.
@Scribbler has good advice.
30yrs is a loooong time physically, especially with compromised strength from the fibro.
And moving from heat to the extreme opposite - Midwest Winter - may not be the best choice either.
I totally agree with you on the heat & relentless sun - my folks lived in SoCal & “dry heat” is still HOT!
But every Winter gets just a bit harder & I am trying like heck to find a way to Snowbird somewhere with my Herd of 3.
Love Spring & Summer, even most of Fall, but once the cold sets in, Life on the farm - a mere 5ac - becomes “challenging”.
At 68yo I find my brain says I’m still 18 & I ride & do my barn chores (3 @ home) accordingly.
My body says “go ahead. We’ll talk about that…tomorrow” :uhoh:
My own DH was 18yrs older than me & in great shape, had his own business involving physical labor & still age eventually began to catch up with him, so although your husband is able now, things can change.
IIWM, I’d get a riding horse & investigate the market for breeding before jumping back into that as a means of income.
QH here are a Dime a Dozen, auctions are full of nice-looking horses being sold for hundreds, not thousands.
And I am living in WP Country, a desert for H/J or Dressage.
Best of Luck, whatever you decide :encouragement:
A DH who is quite a bit older than 60, as you describe yours, may find that while he is willing to do hard work requiring “brute strength,” he may not be ABLE to do it anymore. Just as you want to get back to horses after 30 years away, back in your home state of Iowa, but what about those long harsh Iowa winters? What about those long hot Iowa summers? Tornadoes? Floods? I have cousins who farm in Iowa.
I came back to riding when I was nearly 10 years younger than you are now, after I had been away from horses for “only” 25 years (as opposed to your 30). I loved going out to the barn, grooming, and riding, but on a hot Southeastern summer day no one rode after about 9 am, and even then, going out and coming back across a 12-acre pasture with just one horse was exhausting.
So was feeding on cold winter days, when our fingers were too numb to do up buckles and gate latches and it was hard to hold and manipulate them while wearing warm gloves. There was no way I could have, or would have, dealt with even a small herd – and being the Southeast, that was usually cold without snow.
An Iowa winter, exposure to the elements, and what if you come down with flu or pneumonia? What if your DH gets sick at the same time?
If you’ve read this far, I’m honestly not trying to quash your dreams. Just try it out first in Arizona, maybe next fall if the temps drop a little, and spend some time at a good local barn not only riding, but helping with the farm work, including pulling shoes, tending a colicky horse, working with broodmares and youngsters, mucking stalls, handling square bales and/or round bales, mending fences and gates, cleaning tack, and then seeing if you have enough energy left to actually get up on one of the horses and enjoy a ride.
I am 5 years older than you are and by now it’s been over 5 years since I was last on a horse. I still want to get back to horses – if I ever get enough money to go to a barn regularly – but does my body? I won’t know the answer to that 'til I put it to the test – and that would be just one day a week, not 24/7.
I was reasonably fit and completely healthy in my 40s when I returned to riding in twice weekly English lessons. I was a good rider English and Western ss a kid, stopped riding in college. I could still post and sit a spook but had to relearn everything about position.
A decade later I have my own horse in a self board barn, and in my late 50s really that is enough. I ride trails and arena from one to two hours a day, do my own care, have a trailer to go out to big trails. It’s definitely more work on days I agree to look after a friend’s horse when they are away!
I would be overwhelmed with my own property and I see that many folks IRL and on COTH become so busy with property maintenance that they dobt get to ride.
OP, I think you should stage your return to horses step by step and see what it means to you now.
You can’t pick up where you left off at 30 as if the intervening years haven’t happened. You need to experiment and see where you are now
Maybe you will be happy with one horse boarded out. Maybe you will be able to manage several on your own land on pasture. Maybe you will find you prefer ground work and babies. But the poster above who said the market is glutted for some breeds in some areas is right. Lots of young QH go direct to meat sales these days.
I’ve done some riding off and on in the intervening years, even did some showing though not in the last 15 years since I’ve lived here in AZ. I’m originally from eastern IA, 45 yrs. there, so it’s familiar territory and I’m looking at properties in the southern part though I’m from the northern area. Interstate 80 marks a kind of great divide between the type of winter weather you get. South is much milder, more rain than snow.
This is not something I’ll be doing as a source of income at all. I just happen to love broodmares and raising babies. Obviously you can’t keep all the babies indefinitely so selling at some point is just simple reality. I’m definitely thinking small. This is to be a ‘retirement’ activity meaning 2 broodmares, tops.
Thinking I might lease a well-broke gelding initially - I have some friends whose horses are invariably well-broke and quiet. My riding has always centered on showing western pleasure, halter, and some hunter under saddle. Nothing terribly strenuous or adventuresome. All my family and all my horsey friends are back in Iowa so I’d have other sources of assistance other than just my spouse.
Just like to point out that I’ve been extremely fit all these years from running, hiking, pilates, yoga, etc. Up until about 4-5 years ago when my feet demanded I stop the distance running because the soles of my feet had no fat pads left. I tell folks running in this heat melted them away.
I still have a lot of core strength, flexibility and balance. Absolutely no joint issues, no lower back problems, no arthritis at all … As my doctor likes to tell me I’m as healthy as a healthy 40 yr old I just have this problem with muscular pain, most likely a central neurological sensitization issue due to trauma which I’m successfully working on ‘reprogramming’.
Finding a new place, selling my current house, moving, setting up the new place to handle horses, finding the horses I’d want to own - it’s not something that can be rushed. It’s going to be a slow process. Posting here is a first step.
The problem with trying it here is 1) there are no boarding stables within driving distance of where I live, the closest place is about 90 minutes away 2) I’ve not been able to find anyone who offers lessons unless you have your own horse to ride because of liability issues and 3) even the distant places I’ve looked at don’t stall board unless you have a horse in training with them and all the places prohibit non-employees from doing any farm work, they consider it a liability issue and cheap labor is easier and safer to use.
Thing is, I haven’t been away from IA for 30 years or away from horses completely for 30 yrs, I just haven’t been in the horse BUSINESS for 30 years. In Iowa it’s the long, sometimes harsh winters with wearing 4 layers of clothing and the frozen fingers and toes. Here it’s the long, unbearably hot, dry summers (it’s 109 here today), flash-flooding is a big problem here completely different from the type of flooding in Iowa (make sure you don’t buy in a floodplain), tornadoes, like droughts are acts of God; they happen or they don’t - I don’t worry about things I can’t control. No one can ever be 100% prepared for all the what-ifs. You plan the best you can, you take good care of yourself, and when something comes up you haven’t planned for you ask for help (my family and friends are in Iowa, not out here). 5 years ago I was running at least 6 miles a day, doing an hour of pilates and an hour of yoga after I ran. In the absence of horses I filled my life with hard, strenuous exercise but it wasn’t satisfying.
And it isn’t that my DH is just willing it’s that he IS still able. My DH still works (by choice) at a job that requires hard, brute strength kind of work. He still works out 2 to 3 hours every day he has the time. He was still running 15+ miles in the afternoons 5-6 years ago but like myself it was his feet that stopped him so now he does other things. In the absence of his full time career he’s filled his life with hard, strenuous exercise. We’re two of a kind that way.
Yup, at our ages either one of us could keel over any time. What matters is if you’re living, not just existing, right up to that moment.
Ok, OP, you sound way fitter now that you add details than in your first post!
I find it hard to believe there is no lesson barn offering basic English lessons anywhere in your area. Lesson barns get water tight insurance coverage and pay for it out of the profits of the lesson program. Maybe if you are in a rural or very Western area there are no lesson barns.
Mostly it’s all roping out here. Roping and trail riding. People with their own places just trailride. There used to be a couple of trail riding/rental places for tourists but they went out of business. I live in a suburban bedroom-type community. Other than houses and golf courses there’s not much here. This is a rotten place to have horses - there’s no grass unless you can irrigate and you can’t irrigate unless you own the water rights to your property … unless you’re a golf course, of course. 
Finding riding lessons in Iowa shouldn’t be as hard and I would definitely look into it if for no other reason than I know I developed some sloppy habits only riding green horses for so many years and, yes, I am rusty. Even when I was giving lessons to my own students I’d occasionally go for lessons myself. A pair of eyes on the ground is invaluable.
I admit to being out of shape but it hasn’t been as long as I made it sound in my original post since I was in excellent condition. Actually I was probably in much better shape 5 years back than I had been when horses were my living.
Bottom line, I’ve not been really living without horses out my back door no matter what the hardship was. My existence now is easy, aside from the fibro, compared to when I had livestock to care for but it’s just existing. It’s hard to explain the connection I had to my breeding stock, mares and stallions both but especially the broodmares. But this belongs in a different discussion. Existentialism and horses … :rolleyes:
Ah in some ways sounds like the suburbs where I grew up in the 1970s. No lessons, dude strings, every one who rode had their own horse.
I didn’t know how I’d feel about horses as I eased back into riding but as soon as I sat on a horse again I felt at home. I may not have looked that great but I felt wonderful 
and it hasn’t abated over the past decade.
I don’t expect to do anything close to what I used to do. I used to own a boarding,training, breeding, showing operation. 50 head of horses, about half mine half boarders. I just want a little place where I can have 3-4 horses of my own. I don’t want to live out the rest of my life in a suburb, not having horses around me.
One thing to consider is budgeting in to hire help if needed, either for one off projects or regular chores if you lose health or energym
Definitely. I know there will be things I’ll need to hire out for. I had figured that.
I know how you feel. I don’t want to exist like that either. Existentialism and horses … hmm …
I have no idea how to go about finding some way to be with horses again.
I found out I can live in a suburb and keep a horse :), didn’t even know about this barn until I started back riding. There are often more options for horses than you realize until you get back to it.
